My ruminations on my life, my family, cooking, baking, and whatever else comes to mind
We had a nice relaxing Christmas, starting with sleeping in, then opening gifts, Emma included, enjoying some bacon and fried potatoes for breakfast, a day of watching goofy movies and TV, a standing rib roast for dinner, and more fun TV for the evening. We just started watching Penn and Teller’s Bullshit series. Very fun. All in all a very nice day!
I wish all the best for all of you today and in the new year!
We had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of bacon wrapped shrimp and steamed crab legs (about 5 minutes from frozen to perfectly hot, moist, and tender). It was very nice š We topped it off with some tasty cookies. I hope you all have a peaceful and joyful night in anticipation of Christmas!
This is a creation of my own, inspired by many recipes online. It turned out quite well for off the cuff. The bacon was a bit overwhelming, and I’ll definitely use regular hickory or alderwood smoked next time rather than honey maple, but we’re definitely using this as a launching point! The salt and pepper crust was great, and the pork was tender and juicy.
Next time we’re going with an Italian theme: cutting the bacon down to 2 oz (2 slices), dicing the mushrooms, adding some diced olives and fresh basil and oregano to the stuffing, and adding some oregano to the top crust as well.
We served this with some green salad and buttermilk biscuits (I cheated and used Bisquick tonight).
Bacon and Mushroom Stuffed Pork Tenderloin
Serves 6
2 pork tenderloins, about 3 lbs total weight
8 oz bacon
8 oz small button mushrooms, quartered
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp garlic powder
kosher salt and black pepper
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
Cut the pork tenderloins nearly in half lengthwise, butterflying them.
Chop the bacon into bite sized chunks. In a skillet, brown the bacon until crisp. Remove to a bowl, leaving the fat in the skillet. Add the mushrooms, salt, pepper, and garlic, and saute until tender. Add to the bacon and toss.
Spoon the mixture across one of the pork tenderloins. Lay the other pork tenderloin across the top, and tie the two together with kitchen twine. Season the meat with kosher salt and black pepper.
Cook until the internal temperature in the thickest part of the top pork tenderloin reaches 160 degrees F, about 45 minutes.
This is Spaghetti Carbonara with the eggs deliberately cooked. We found we liked it better that way š It becomes much more reminiscent of typical breakfast flavors, and has thus been dubbed “breakfast skabetti” or “breakfast pesketti” in our house, playing off the way we each mispronounced the word spaghetti as children.
Breakfast Skabetti
Serves 4
1 lb spaghetti
1 tbsp olive oil
4 oz thick sliced pancetta, cut into Ā¼ inch strips
4 cloves garlic, pressed
2 eggs
Ā¼ tsp black pepper
dash freshly grated nutmeg
Ā¼ tsp kosher salt
Boil water for the spaghetti and add it to the pot. In a small bowl, beat the eggs with the pepper and nutmeg. Set aside. When the pasta is about halfway done, add the olive oil and pancetta to a skillet and cook over medium high heat for 4-5 minutes or until the fat is rendered and the pancetta is turning crispy. Drain the pasta and set aside. Turn heat to medium low. Add the garlic to the skillet and sautƩ for another 30 seconds or until soft and fragrant. Dump the pasta into the skillet, sprinkle with the salt, and toss to combine well. Pour the egg mixture over and toss again quickly to coat and to scramble the eggs in little bits all over the paste. Serve warm.
This is a warming soup that uses up some leftover ham. A nice meal for a winter’s evening! This is also great with black beans.
Ham and Bean Soup
Makes 8 servings (about 2 cups per serving)
1 lb dry pinto beans
1 lb ham, cut into small pieces
1 bone from a ham
Ā½ cup packed brown sugar
1 tbsp Gebhardt chili powder
1 bay leaf
1 tsp black pepper
Ā½ tsp salt
Ā½ tsp onion powder
Ā½ tsp cumin
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 quart chicken broth
2 cups water
Rinse the beans and pick out any stones or bad beans. Cover the beans in hot water and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and cover for 1-2 hours. Dump out the soaking water and rinse the beans.
Return the beans to the pan and add the rest of the ingredients. Bring the beans to a boil then reduce the heat to low. Simmer for 2 hours or until the beans are tender. Remove bay leaf and discard. Remove ham bone, shred any meat off the bone, and stir it back into the beans.
Serve hot with some bread.
This is a tasty holiday meal. It is very low maintenance, though it takes awhile. The leftovers are great for breakfast, in beans, in sandwiches, and in all sorts of things. The bone makes a wonderful ham stock for soups. We had this along with a green salad.
Baked Ham
Serves 15
1 fully cooked butt portion bone in ham, about 7 pounds
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place the ham in a baking dish, cut side down. Make sure you remove any plastic piece covering the bone. Bake for about 2.5 hours (20 minutes per pound), or until the internal temperature reaches 140 degrees F. Serve hot.
These are an easy and tasty dinner. It’s quite kid-friendly, while still allowing the flavor of the chicken to come through rather than the generic fried flavor that dominates so many restaurant versions. I
sliced a couple white rose potatoes into 1/4 inch rounds and boiled them for about 15 minutes while I cooked the chicken. Shaun skipped the gravy and had barbecue sauce instead.
Chicken Fingers with Pan Gravy
Serves 2 generously
1 lb thinly sliced chicken breasts
1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
dash cayenne pepper
2 tbsp canola oil
1 cup chicken broth
Cut the chicken breasts into strips. Mix the flour, salt, and peppers in a shallow dish. Dredge each strip to coat well.
Heat 1 tbsp of oil over medium high heat. Add the chicken strips, being careful not to crowd the pan. I had to do 3 batches to finish them all. Add more oil as necessary. Cook 2-3 minutes on each side or until nicely browned and cooked through. Cover finished strips with foil on a plate to keep warm.
When all the strips are finished and on the plate, add 2 tbsp of the leftover flour to the pan and stir with the oil to make a roux. Let the roux cook for 30 seconds or until bubbling. Add the chicken broth and stir well. Bring to a boil to thicken. Serve hot.
Today was a big day for my place of employment, and specifically my program. First flight has been greatly anticipated, and was hailed with much cheer. Being in a celebratory mood, I made the Desert Drowned Shrimp below along with some rib eye steaks and roasted broccoli for dinner. A nice end to an exciting day!
Taking off over the factory. The little blob behind it is one of the T-33 escort planes.
This is a great recipe that I’ve paraphrased from the wonderful The Border Cookbook : Authentic Home Cooking of the American Southwest and Northern Mexico
Desert Drowned Shrimp
Serves 4-6
2 pounds medium to large shrimp, unshelled (I used 31-40 EZ peel)
1/2 cup fresh lime juice (about 3 limes)
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (about 1 large lemon)
1/2 cup water
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp coarse ground black pepper
Pour the shrimp into a large saucepan. Add the lemon and lime juices, the water, and the salt. Bring to a gentle boil then remove from heat. Pour the mixture into a shallow dish and refrigerate for 45 to 60 minutes. Don’t worry that the shrimp aren’t quite cooked. The residual heat will easily finish the job, and cooking them all the way over the heat will result in overcooked shrimp.
After chilling, drain the liquid from the shrimp and toss with the olive oil and pepper. Serve with many napkins, as this is messy!
This is my recipe for chili. It’s a great cold weather meal. My office is having a chili cook-off as part of our holiday party tomorrow, so I made up a batch. I’ll bring in my slow-cooker tomorrow and let it simmer all morning too.
*…And a small update Monday afternoon. My chili took 3rd place out of 11 entries. Not bad!
Cassieās Chili
Makes approximately 10 2-cup servings
1 tbsp canola oil
2 lb ground beef (preferably āchili groundā ā itās a coarser, heartier grind)
10 large or 15 medium cloves of garlic, finely minced
2 tbsp dark chili powder (I prefer Gebhardt)
1 tbsp cumin
1 tsp onion powder
Ā½ tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
ā
tsp cayenne pepper
2 4-oz cans diced fire roasted green chiles, undrained
1 28-oz can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 28-oz can fire roasted diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can tomato sauce (8 oz)
1 can tomato paste (6 oz)
1 chipotle chile in adobo sauce, finely minced
1 can pinto beans, undrained (15 oz)
1 can kidney beans, undrained (15 oz)
1 can northern beans, undrained (15 oz)
Heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add the meat, garlic, and seasonings, and brown. Add the green chilies and stir to combine. Add the beans and tomato products and stir again. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium low and simmer for at least half an hour and up to 4 hours.
